Tools of Characterization

Characterization in The Sting

Clothing

When Johnny gets a fat stack of cash by conning Mottolla in the opening scene of this movie, the first thing he does is go out and buy a really fancy—and really, really ugly—suit. He does this mostly because he wants to act like a big shot, but as the movie goes on, the more we realize that looking sharp is an essential part of a conman's business.

Kid Twist, for example, always makes sure to have a pristine suit on. He also makes sure that anyone involved in one of his cons has an awesome suit too. The reason for this is because people are much easier to con out of their money when they think you're already flush with dough.

People tend to let their guard down around people who look rich. If Kid Twist tried to con someone wearing a shirt with holes in it, that person would immediately have distrust and would be much more difficult to con.

Ultimately, a rich-looking person is actually more likely to be a con artist than a poor-looking one. But people's natural prejudices make them think the other way around, and conmen are more than happy to take advantage of any natural prejudice they can get hold of.

Thoughts and Opinions

Most of the characters you meet in this movie are conmen, and to some extent they all share a common philosophy. But, that being said, there are also some pretty significant differences between them.

Henry Gondorff, for example, is a guy who's spent much of his criminal career running big cons with big teams. This is something that requires a lot of trust between conmen, and he tries his best to impress this opinion on Johnny Hooker.

Johnny, on the other hand, is a guy who's always tended to do things his own way and it takes him quite a while to get on board with the whole team trust thing. And Doyle Lonnegan almost never wastes an opportunity to let us know he'd instantly kill all his best friends in order to protect his criminal empire.

Direct Characterization

We learn some stuff about Doyle Lonnegan by watching him do business, but we learn even more when we watch a group of grifters sit around a table and analyze what kind of dude Lonnegan is.

We find out in this scene that Lonnegan is a super-careful man who doesn't drink and barely ever goes anywhere alone. His only weakness is poker, and that's hardly a weakness because he cheats to make sure he always wins. We also find out that Lonnegan lies about what neighborhood he grew up in to look more respectable.

…and we also find out that Henry Gondorff is just the kind of guy to take this knowledge and use it against Lonnegan.

Occupation

What can we say? This is a movie about grifters and professional criminals. But the real key to our sympathy lies in deciding which types of criminals are more sympathetic than others.

Doyle Lonnegan, for example, is a mob boss who doesn't think twice about having people killed just for mildly disrespecting him. Henry Gondorff and Johnny Hooker, on the other hand, are conmen who work in a community of other conmen and live by a code of honor.

At the end of the day, they're all criminals…but it's a lot easier to be on Henry and Johnny's side.